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Post by mangetout on Mar 30, 2023 15:28:00 GMT 1
I have always taken sanctuary in my greenhouse. There's something about sowing seeds and watching them grow that soothes my soul. Even last year when my husband was dying I still kept going. This year I've been slow to start, not really able to see the point. Who will eat it all? But I've found a way round that. I am giving away my little plants to whoever wants them and just keeping the bare minimum for me. No doubt I'll end up giving away the produce as well. So here's what I've raised so far: toms, butternut squash, pattison, green courgettes cucumbers, chillies, and then lots of flowers. Carrots are sown in the garden, along with beetroot and 'everlasting spinach' Lettuce, radish and spring onion under cloche. Just the climbing beans to sow later and I'm done. So how are your greenhouses doing?
Oops, forgot the spring cabbage.
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suein56
Member
Southern Morbihan 56 Brittany
Posts: 7,464
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Post by suein56 on Mar 30, 2023 16:08:41 GMT 1
We don't have a greenhouse here as we live in a very windy spot; we had one in the UK and it was great fun as well as productive. The cats loved to snooze in it. I had to look up 'pattison' .. as I wasn't familiar with that.
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Post by jackie on Mar 30, 2023 16:17:30 GMT 1
I have always taken sanctuary in my greenhouse. There's something about sowing seeds and watching them grow that soothes my soul. Even last year when my husband was dying I still kept going. This year I've been slow to start, not really able to see the point. Who will eat it all? But I've found a way round that. I am giving away my little plants to whoever wants them and just keeping the bare minimum for me. No doubt I'll end up giving away the produce as well. So here's what I've raised so far: toms, butternut squash, pattison, green courgettes cucumbers, chillies, and then lots of flowers. Carrots are sown in the garden, along with beetroot and 'everlasting spinach' Lettuce, radish and spring onion under cloche. Just the climbing beans to sow later and I'm done. So how are your greenhouses doing? Oops, forgot the spring cabbage. I find it really therapeutic too, nurturing new life into existence. So far I have sown tomatoes and salad crops. Tomorrow I plan to sow purple spouting and tenderstem broccoli, beetroot, swiss chard and french beans. We put up some insect hotels on the south facing side of our house last autumn and this morning we were delighted to see mason bees using the little tubes to lay their eggs which they then plug with mud. It’s the little things…..Next will be bat boxes…..
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Post by mangetout on Mar 30, 2023 16:22:42 GMT 1
We don't have a greenhouse here as we live in a very windy spot; we had one in the UK and it was great fun as well as productive. The cats loved to snooze in it. I had to look up 'pattison' .. as I wasn't familiar with that. Pattison are lovely, not only a joy to look at but a lovely slightly nutty taste. More interesting than your average courgette.
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exile
Member
Massif Central
Posts: 2,680
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Post by exile on Mar 30, 2023 17:07:36 GMT 1
Just potting on the pepper plants sown back in February. The tomatoes which were sown this month are now germinating. For the rest the greenhouses are providing protection for the tender plants still - hostas, penstomen, mints (exotic types) geranium etc..
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Post by mangetout on Mar 30, 2023 17:16:20 GMT 1
Do your Penstemon really need protecting? Must be really cold where you are. But they are lovely, aren't they. And flower their hearts out.
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Post by limousinlady on Mar 30, 2023 17:19:29 GMT 1
Oh gosh. I haven't even started yet. I don't like venturing out in the cold. . I checked my seed packets and most say April is ok to sow. I have a little potting shed so not a lot of room, but seed potatoes went in the ground today.
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Post by pcpa on Mar 30, 2023 17:20:54 GMT 1
Still removing the overgrown remains of buildings, enclosures, greenhouses etc and 30 years of brambles & self seeded trees in what once was a productive smallholding, oh and 30 years of rubbish.
The ground underneath is incredibly fertile, last year during the moving period I was away when the grass that I had reclaimed was shooting up, amongst it were numerous artichoke feet, I know nothing about gardening but people with all their chairs around the table dont usually plant artichoke in a lawn do they? Especially if it is the only small area left not completely reverted to nature through neglect.
At the end I will have to take up growing, the plot deserves it even if it does not appeal to me at all, I'm sure I will enjoy it though and it will be rewarding.
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exile
Member
Massif Central
Posts: 2,680
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Post by exile on Mar 30, 2023 17:31:32 GMT 1
Do your Penstemon really need protecting? Must be really cold where you are. But they are lovely, aren't they. And flower their hearts out. Experience says they don't like high minus teen temperatures sadly. If that makes sense. Except for the last few years, we regularly had overnight temperatures down in the minus teens or even minus twenties.
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Post by mangetout on Mar 30, 2023 17:42:29 GMT 1
Wow, that's cold. I've lost one of mine this year but I think it was a result of drought.
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Aardvark
Non-gamer
Living in soggy 22 and still wondering what's going on.
Posts: 2,172
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Post by Aardvark on Mar 30, 2023 19:07:38 GMT 1
We wouldn't dare have a glass greenhouse here because of the wind. We Mrs A has been using a polytunnel and last season was its last because of general dilapidation and broken zips on the door. There's a new cover in the shed waiting to be installed if the weather ever settles down enough for us to venture outside. It sounds like we should have already started out some seeds but it just wasn't somewhere we wanted to be. Too far from the fireplace. Maybe next month.
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Post by mangetout on Mar 30, 2023 19:10:40 GMT 1
Still removing the overgrown remains of buildings, enclosures, greenhouses etc and 30 years of brambles & self seeded trees in what once was a productive smallholding, oh and 30 years of rubbish. The ground underneath is incredibly fertile, last year during the moving period I was away when the grass that I had reclaimed was shooting up, amongst it were numerous artichoke feet, I know nothing about gardening but people with all their chairs around the table dont usually plant artichoke in a lawn do they? Especially if it is the only small area left not completely reverted to nature through neglect. At the end I will have to take up growing, the plot deserves it even if it does not appeal to me at all, I'm sure I will enjoy it though and it will be rewarding. What sort of artichokes?
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exile
Member
Massif Central
Posts: 2,680
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Post by exile on Mar 30, 2023 19:39:22 GMT 1
We wouldn't dare have a glass greenhouse here because of the wind. We Mrs A has been using a polytunnel and last season was its last because of general dilapidation and broken zips on the door. There's a new cover in the shed waiting to be installed if the weather ever settles down enough for us to venture outside. It sounds like we should have already started out some seeds but it just wasn't somewhere we wanted to be. Too far from the fireplace. Maybe next month. These days glass greenhouses are not glass but plastic glazing. I do however understand the point. We are very exposed at around 3000ft - 900+m. We brought a glass green house from Germany but bought in the UK 10+ years before. After 4 or 5 seasons we had a big storm that essentially destroyed it and broke all but 2 panes of glass. We bought a replacement (in Germany) with plastic glazing. Over a number of years plastic panes have blown out and some have not been found to effect the repairs - so new sheet bought. In fact this now has the two remaining glass sheets from the original installed in replacement of a vanished plastic sheet. These were all 1.8 x 2.4m affairs. We then decided we needed something bigger so bought a 1.8 x 4.8m affair. The first big storm, it blew down. I rebuilt it with much better foundations. 3 years later, the next big storm blew it down - lifting all of the foundation pads on the windward side out of the ground - 5 x approx 35kg lumps of concrete set deep in the ground. Many of the aluminium sections were bent beyond repair, but I was able to salvage one end with door plus 2 x 2.4 sides which I have fixed to the end of a wooden shed. This time set in the ground with a ring foundation.
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Post by pcpa on Mar 30, 2023 20:18:28 GMT 1
I'm sorry I don't know, I've never really been a gardener to date, I believe they were edible and have probably just made a fool of myself if they all are! The son who had been squatting in the place for the last decade is a sandwich short of a pique-nique, people would give him their old rubbish instead of taking it to the déchetterie & he would hoard it, same with uprooted plants or trees, he would plant them anywhere and the would just spread because he never ever maintained or cut anything back. There were some quite exotic palm like things that had taken over the whole of the rear and became a tropical forest, I have kept one & chopped the stalks down to ground level before winter, my friends took several of them and successfully transplanted them. Thank heavens he never got given any bamboo!
Some of the brambles were 10m + high in areas where they had support from trees & buildings, the front hedge originally 1m from the boundary had grown to 6-8m tall, mainly brambles & ivy & had engulfed the fence, the grass verge and was encroaching onto the road overall about 4m deep along the whole frontage.
I cut the ivy from the bottom 2m of the EDF poteau and the sections were as thick as my thighs, it was all the way to the top & could not go any higher so just got thicker, underneath the post was white virgin concrete as clean as it was when installed in 1968, it has been covered in ivy since installed.
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Post by specsavers2 on Mar 30, 2023 20:37:53 GMT 1
Used to love my time in the greenhouse, at work to escape or my own place at home. No stress just work away with little or no effort. Loved it.
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